Animal-trough.



A. J. KLEIN & E. W. NORDSTROM.

ANIMAL TROUGH. APPLICATION FILED JUNE25| 1915.

Patented Sept. 12, 1916.

Witncmm I atto'zuewd ARTHUR J. KLEIN AND EDWARD w. NORPSfI ROIZI QF BURLINGTON, IOWA.

ANIMAL-TBQUGH.

i Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Sept, 12 1916,

Application filed June 25, 1915. Serial No. 36,406.

. To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, ARTHUR J. KLEIN and EDWARD W. NonDsTRoM, citizens of the United States, residing atkBurlington, in

' the county of Des Moines and State of Iowa,

have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Animal-Troughs; and we do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

A purpose of this invention is to provide a trough without seams and of a construction which will facilitate packing and shipping of the device in large quantities to occupy a minimum of space. By flaring the ends outwardly and forming them in a substantially concavo-convex manner, additional capacity is given to the feed level of the trough, and in addition thereto the ends serve to return the material within the trough toward the central lower part of the structure.

In animal troughs it is desirous that the structure be composed of but few parts ow ing to the strain'imposed upon the structure I and also the rough usage to which it is sub jected. lVhere troughs are provided with right angular ends, diificulty'has been found in properly cleansing the trough owing to the sharp angle formed at the union of the end and body portion. Moreover, the animal is unable to obtain all the food from the trough which may become lodged in the angle formed bythe union of these two members. To overcome such defects there is provided a one piece body portion, the ends of which are positioned at an angle to the plane of the body and are substantially concavo-convex in form. A seam and sharp angle are thereby eliminated at the junc-. ture of the end with the body portion permitting the animal to more easily obtain material within the trough, and also aflord facility for readily cleansing the structure.

While a preferred embodiment of the inof a plurality of troughs packed ready for shipment disclosing the facilities for storing and shipping a plurality of troughs in a minimum of space. Fig. 3 is a bottom plan view of the trough.

Referring to the disclosure of the invention set forth in the accompanying drawings, the body of the trough is illustrated at 1, and is preferably of a single piece of metal. The trough is a channeled seamless structure. It is preferably formed concavo convex, or semi-cylindrical, and is shown provided with side flanges 2, which may be perforated as at 3 at various points of the flange, especially at the'end portions thereof. If desired, brace strips 4 may be provided for the trough, and secured to the flange 2 by any suitable means passed through the strips and the perforations 3 thereof. The ends of the body portion are formed of the same material as the body, and are indicated at 5. They are'preferably concavo-convex in form, and may be arranged at an angle to the plane of the body portion." This arrangement permits of a continuous trough which extends to include the. ends, as distinguished from the trough wherein the ends are seamed at right angles to thebody structure and thereby shorten the length of the trough, over the structure herein disclosed. The end members are shown corrugated as at 6, the corrugations extending from the base 7 from which they increase in depth to the upper free edge of the end.

To protect the animal from the sharp edge formed by the corrugated ends6 of the trough, an end plate 8 is shown provided with an upper inturned flange 9, which covers the sharpened edges of the ends. The plate 8 is preferably provided with a concavo-oonvex portion 10,- to receive the end 5 of the body structure and house the same. The lower end of the plate 10 is preferably provided with an outturned flange 11 which is adapted to form a rest to engage .the floor or ground surface to elevate the trough body from the ground when the end plate 8 is secured to the trough. Theend plate may be stiffened by providing the side flanges 12. If desired the upper flange 9 may be formed as at 13 and curved transversely to conform to the formation of the end of the body. The upper flange 9 is preferably perforated at each end thereof to register with the perforations 3 in the side flanges 2 of the body, and any suitable retaining means such as screws or rivets ll may be passedvthrough the perforations to secure the plate 8 to the end of the body structure. At a substantially central portion of the plate there is preferably provided a countersunk portion 15 which is formed in the material of the plate 8 to engage the lower central portion of the body, and may be secured thereto by any suitable means. One securing device may be a threaded bolt 16 mounted in any suitable manner on the trough, the threaded end being passed through the portion 15, where it may be secured by a nut 17 By this arrangement the end plate 8 may be secured to the body at three points, namely, at the countersunk portion 15 and at the two ends 14.

Any suitable number of cross strips 4 may be employed, and if desired the side flanges 2 may be formed of metal which is doubled upon itself to increase the strength. In shipping a number of troughs, the bodies can be assembled as in Fig. 2, suitable retaining means, such as a wire 16 passed through the perforations 3 at the ends, and the end plates 8 fitted within each other and secured within the central portion of the trough. The knock-down feature of the trough thereby saves storage space as well as economy\ in labor when assembling the members.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A one piece trough comprising a body portion having upwardly and outwardly flared corrugated ends.

2. A trough comprising a one piece body portion having its ends corrugated and flared outwardly at the upper part thereof to form a substantially concavo-convex member, and an end plate having a concaveconvex recess to house the flared end portion and to support the trough.

' 8. A trough comprising a one piece body portion having its ends corrugated and flared outwardly at the upper part thereof to form a substantially concavo-convex member, and an end plate having a concavoconvex rest to house the end portion of the body, said'plate being provided with an inturned upper flange to protect the upper end of the flared ends, and with an outturned flange to serve as a base for the plate.

4. A trough comprising a one piece body portion having an outwardly flared end, and a platewith a concave-convex portion to engage with and house the flared portion of the body, said plate terminating in a straight substantially horizontal upper portion and a substantially horizontal foot flange, and means to secure the end plate to the body member at each upper side of said plate.

5. A trough comprising a one piece body having upwardly and outwardly flared corrugated ends and provided with flanges at the sides thereof, and end plates having a recessed portion to house the flared ends, said end plates having an inturned upper flange to protect the corrugated edges of the body and to overlap the side flanges of the body, and means to secure the end plates to the body at the overlapped portion of the inturned flange and the side flanges of the body.

In testimony whereof, we affix our signatures in presence of two witnesses.

Nitnesses:

RUBY A. Mourns, ED ZELLER. 

